Notice!

This site has been closed as of September 1, 1999. Mars is receding from
the Earth and shrinking in size. This makes it very difficult to observe
the planet. The MarsWatch site will be archived. We will not be deleting
this site for the foreseeable future.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to making MarsWatch a
success this apparition. The quantity and quality of images received are
remarkable, to say the least.

Introduction

The International MarsWatch is a group founded by amateur and professional
astronomers more than 30 years ago to facilitate better communication between
the amateur and professional Mars observing communities. Here you will find
images of Mars contributed by amateurs and professional, tools to aid you
in planning your own Mars observations, current and past issues of the
International Mars Watch Electronic Newsletter, and links to other Mars-relevant
sites on the Internet. The primary purpose of this project is frequent CCD
imaging of Mars using B,V,R or other standard filters and visual drawings
and photos in order to monitor the planet's atmospheric dust and cloud activity.

The upcoming apparition (1999) is particularly important because the U.S.
Orbiter (Mars Global Surveyor) will start regular imaging during this time.
In addition, the orbiter will be in a low sun-synchronous polar orbit, so
it will only "see" the surface of Mars around 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time
(the rest of the planet is over the horizon), so quality ground-based
observations are needed in order to place these single-time-of-day orbiter
views of the planet as well as the single-location lander data, into a global
context.

Poster's note: All submissions will be added to the
MarsWatch ftp Archive exactly as submitted. For display on the MarsWatch
website, submissions may be edited for size, duplication, text position,
etc. Submissions will be archived at various sites on the Internet and may
be published at a later time. We urge any researcher using this information
to credit all observers who's work has contributed to your research.

This map was assembled using CCD images, videos, drawing and photos taken
during the 1997 Mars apparition by observers of the ALPO International Mars
Patrol and MarsWatch '97. I used the program Photoshop 4 and over 1,700
observations to create this maps, first in greyscale. Then, using the greyscale
map as a reference, I made the color map. This is an telescopic view so South
is on top with North on the bottom. The following limb is on the right side.
The very bright area to the bottom (North) is the North Polar Cap (NPC),
the white areas are clouds and the blue patch over Syrtis Major is the "Blue
Syrtis Cloud".

This Site has been accessed
37728
times since February 25, 1999 and before June 12, 2002 [when counter stopped]

This page is maintained by David Knighton for the International MarsWatch.
The 1998-1999 Marswatch site it hosted by the Astronomical League as a service
to the astronomical community. Comments, corrections, and suggestions can
be addressed to
webmaster@astroleague.org.
This page last updated October 7, 1999.